Summer's Shenanigans

I underwent Lasik laser eye surgery on January 18th and I'm finally now starting to see better (it's been nearly 3 weeks since the laser zapped my poor eyeballs). I seeeee yooouuuuuuu!

The healing time of the type of Lasik that I got (PRK) is much longer then the "normal" Lasik that you hear about, but unfortunately I was expecting to be better in 1 - 2 days, like everyone else that I know that has undergone Lasik eye surgery. Honestly, I would have never have gotten PRK if I had known the exact procedure (it makes me squeamish just thinking about it) and if I had known about the healing time frame. This is what I went through:

The actual PRK surgery didn't take long, around 1 minute per eye, but this is what they do: First the nurse gives you 10 sets of different sorts of eye drops to numb and prepare your eyeballs. You lay down under the laser and they use a metal clamp to pry your eyelids open and to keep you from blinking. Then they take a little instrument (it reminded me of a tooth polisher that your dentist uses) and sand your eyeball (they sand off all the epithelial cells). Then they take a little round cookie cutter and press it onto your eyeball, which cuts off your cornea. The doctor uses a little brush to flap your cornea over and then they zap your eye with the laser for about 20 seconds. Switch and repeat (if you're getting both eyes done).

It was pretty hard to sit there wide awake while your eyeball is getting fucked with. Unfortunately the doctor wouldn't even give me a Valium since the procedure is so short.

Immediately after the surgery, my long vision was better then it was before surgery, but my short vision was totally shot. They gave me sleeping pills to take after the surgery because you are supposed to keep your eyes closed as much as possible the first two days. Day one and two following the surgery wasn't too bad since I was sleeping most of the time, but towards the end of day two my eyes started getting really uncomfortable. Not quite painful, but maddeningly uncomfortable. It felt like someone had taken sandpaper to my eyes (which, they pretty much did) and it also felt like I had something in my eyes (like a big eyelash). This last for 2 days and during that time it was really hard to keep my eyes open, so I tried to sleep as much as possible.

As for my eyesight, day 1 - 5 was weird. The quality of my long vision would come and go, but my short vision was still royally fucked up (I couldn't read my computer no matter how hard I tried). On day 6 I had the soft contact-like bandages removed from my eyes and that is when I started noticing steady improvements in my vision. My long vision was still going in and out but my near vision started getting better with each passing day. Two days ago (17 days after surgery), I woke up and noticed a huge difference and my vision is almost totally healed. It's finally to the point that I don't notice that my eyes are fucked up all day long and my long vision is MUCH better then it was before surgery. My near vision is still recouping, but it's almost 100% as well. With PRK, it can take up to 2 months to completely heal and your vision can continue to improve within that time.

Like I said before, I probably wouldn't have gotten the surgery if I realized the extent of the healing, but with that being said, I'm glad I didn't know because I'm glad that I had PRK/Lasik done. My vision really is so much better. Yay!

Labels: Health, PRK/LASIK